Description
A domestic complex consisting of four buildings, including: the House (ntsmr 26396); the Variant bank barn (ntsmr 26397); the Earth closet (ntsmr 26398) and the Dog kennels (ntsmr 26399).
High Close
High Close belonged to the Flemings of Coniston and Rydal until 1575 when it formed part of a large sale of property by William Fleming to three members of the Benson family which proliferated in Langdale and at Baisbrown. It seems clear that of the three, Michael, Edward, and Bernard, Edward was the one who thus acquired the freehold of High Close although the name of the property he purchased in 1575 is not given. It had lately been occupied by Mabel, widow of John Benson, and bore a rent of 15s.4d. There was a small hamlet of houses at High Close at the time.
Edward Benson was a clothier, like many other members of the family. He must have been a relatively young man when he bought High Close as he lived until 1628. He had at least seven children, and High Close descended to his eldest son George who was dead by 1650. Of his other sons, James seems to have lived at High Close, and Arthur died there in 1638. He was also a clothier, with connections in Wakefield, where he had a stock of teasels, Bristol, Leeds, where he owed and was owed money, and Kendal, where he had this "Loggwood". His probate inventory also lists fustian and other cloth, a "stele" and a brass balance and weights, fishing lines, a cupboard, a silver bowl and spoon, and some cattle and sheep, but no hearth furniture so he was presumably living in his brothers George's household.
George Benson's son Edward appears in various transactions over High Close in the 1650s, but was not apparently the Edwards Benson who bought Low Millbeck (q.v.). He seems to have been George's brother. Other uncles were closely connected with Edward's affairs, notably Michael and George's youngest brother James. Edward had a son George who died intestate in 1675, leaving five under-age children, Edwards, George, Luke, Adam and Isabel. Edward succeeded to the property and died in December 1703, leaving a baby son Edward and two daughters, also minors. His will dose not mention High Close but it would have descended to Edward as his father evidently intended that it should in an earlier will made in 1700 before his son was born. His second will left another messuage at Tail-End in Grasmere, bought from John Benson in 1692, in trust for Edward.
This Edward Benson (1703-54) seems to have gone to live in Grasmere property where he died, also leaving a son Edward who was the last of the Bensons of High Close in direct line from the first Edward of 1575. He also lived at Tail-End and he mortgaged High Close, first in 1775 to the vicar of Grasmere, Edward Rowlandson, and in 1776 to William Gaskarth of Gardhouse in Threlkeld, together with Easedale ("Azle") and Stickle Tarns which his father had bought in 1701 with the island in Grasmere. In 1778 Gaskarth sold the property to John Benson of Skelwith.
However, this transactions seems not to have included all of the High Close property, perhaps only that part which was customary (various additions to the estate had been made by the Bensons), as in 1756 it was said to be the property of Mr John Langton of Cockermouth was certainly owner of some part in 1754 and he appears as the owner of High Close in the land tax assessment of 1773. In 1784 his widow's second husband Samuel Kenyon wrote to Sir Michael Fleming saying that he would have "no objection to selling High Close….though, from the fact that it was a partly freehold and partly customary, it would be difficult to fix a price; £2,000, however, might be suggested." But in 1792 High Close was bought by George Law of Brathay Hall, a Jamaica merchant from Ulverston (1736-1802).
When George Law died, he left his very extensive property to his brother for life with remainder, after Henry's death in 1830, to his nephew John Law Beetham, the son of his sister Sarah. At some date which is not known, and certainly after 1843, Beetham sold High Close to James Greenwood whose son sold it in 1857 to Edward Wheatley-Balme (1819-196), a Yorkshire merchant who eventually came to live at High Close and rebuilt the house to the designs of Cory & Ferguson of Carlisle in 1866, High Close was still a farm until 186.
The Wheatley-Balme extended the estate. Miss Armitt described High Close as a "beautiful residence in the centre of a fair estate". Edward Wheatley-Balme died at High Close in 1896 leaving the property to Frank Maude Taylor Jones, the agent at Rydal who had married his daughter Hannah and who took the additional name of Balme in 1897. After his death in 1911 High Close descended to their son Frank Edward Thorpe Jones-Balme (1869-1951) and it came to the National Trust in 1953 through the National Land Fund.
THE HOW, LOUGHRIGG
The early history of How is fragmentary. When William Jackson of Oaks (q.v.) died in 1610 he left half his messuage at How to his son William during his widow's lifetime and half to his son Robert. After their mother died, Robert was to have the whole farm. Nothing further is known of the Jacksons. From the 1650s a John Benson of How baptised children at Grasmere but the ownership of the farm is uncertain for almost another century, Thomas Shacklock, turner, died at How in 1740, his son, also Thomas, having predeceased him in 1738, leaving a small property at Oxenfell to his father. Thomas Shacklock left his farm at How, rented at 7s.7d. And part of the Richmond fee of the barony of Kendal, to trustees to be sold. One of the trustees was admitted in 1747, probably when the sale took place. The farm, or at least half of it, was apparently bought by Isaac Gascarth, husband of Shacklock's daughter Agnes. The rent mentioned in Gascarth's will was 3s 103/4d., which may indicate that the property had been divided in fact between the Gascarths and one of the Thomas Shacklock's other daughters, Elizabeth, wife of John Mackereth, who was certainly living at How when her father's will was proved.
Isaac Gascarth died in 1797, aged 101 years. His property at How passed to his son John who died in 1809. He left it to a nephew, John Gascarth, a Kendal manufacturer, after the death of his daughter Agnes Sawrey who was to have the profits of it for her lifetime. Another John Gascarth, also a nephew, was then living at the farm. Nothing further is known of the Gascarths. The farm was acquired by the owners of High Close estate (q.v.) at some unknown date and descended with High Close until it came to the National Trust in 1953. In 1851 only one family lived there, that of the farmer William Jackson, but by 1871 they had been joined by that of George Lamb who moved by 1881 to High Close Cottage to become farm bailiff for the estate. In 1881 the estate gamekeeper lived at what was called How Cottage and a labourer, John Gillbanks Clark, lived at How itself.
The initials on the press cupboard, TSIS 1688, inserted in 1969, have not been identified (Green, S, 01/04/1987).